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Tuesday, April 22, 2008

It's going to be one hot summer

I am still so busy with the gardens that I have little else to get done lately. Looking at my three-year-old garden journal, though, I realize that April and May have always been my busiest months in Arizona.

Kevin finally agreed to help me build a container garden, one large enough to grow tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, lettuce, beets and onions for both of us. The west-end of our back yard, with the tall border shrubs providing afternoon shade, will prove ideal for the plants in the heat of the summer.

This is going to be an extensive project, but one I am happy to share with Kevin who loves to farm but hates to garden. ("I will only grow things I can eat!")

My fruit trees, however, are not doing so well and I doubt they will make it through this year. Although my apricot and nectarines are fine, my Santa Rosa Plum and Bartlett pear are pretty much dying a slow death and I don't know why. Are the Argentinian ants killing off the roots?

Forecasters are predicting weekend temperatures back in the 90s again. A 5040-acre wildfire buring near Nogales since Friday was human-caused and hampered by a common language: the fire has spread south into Mexico. This is the largest fire so far in the region, and the season has barely started!

I look at the nearby mountains every day and hope we make it through the night fire-free.

Another thing I am noticing is the increase in illegal activity in our county. More illegals are getting picked up after traffic accidents in which over-loaded vehicles roll over, injuring or killing the passengers from Mexico and countries further south. I've heard the USBP helicopters fly over our neighborhood twice now this week alone, and law enforcement personnel have been reporting an increase in drug smuggling as well.

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/hourlyupdate/235472.php
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AZ_WILDFIRE_AZOL-?SITE=AZSVH&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

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